art of rally

I came to this game expecting a purely arcade experience. I knew I misunderstood the assignment the moment I reached my first turn and flew off straight into a tree. Don't be fooled by the cute low poly graphics and the rally cars, this game has some of the most realistic physics in a non-sim game I've ever played. It took me a while to learn, but when I did I became so hooked I basically only played the career mode of this game and nothing else for a week straight.

Strong 8/10, there were some minor performance issues but nothing extraordinary.

10/10, This game is made with passion and love
This game is one of the rare car racing games that actually gets me excited. Low poly art style, sounds, handling, gameplay and career mode are great. Game doesn't have dumb internet connectivity requirements or stupid microtransactions, It is filled with a variety of beautiful maps, passion and a lot of fun! The lighting is very beautiful too. Also, when you are passing under trees, a camera effect disables leaves so you don't have visibility issues while driving from top-down view. Isn't that very creative? I enjoyed the easter egg (van) hunt a lot. It is a proper way of giving the player a reason for cruising and sightseeing in stunning maps.
This is a fun oriented comfort game with chilling atmosphere and no stress.

Do not be fooled by the deliberately minimal presentation, this is not Sega Rally. Those who can appreciate its unforgivingly realistic physics will love it.

Dust curls in the breeze,
engines scream through forest turns,
victory drifts near.

Art of rally is a minimalist rally racing game, simple in presentation, deep in spirit. True to its name, like a haiku, it tastefully presents rally as an art. No fuss, no filler, just driving in gorgeous colors.

The low poly art style, complimented by gorgeous lighting presents lovely visuals across different locations such a snowy Finland, coniferous Norwegian forested fjords, rolling hills of sunny Sardinia, mountainous Sakura littered Japan, dry Kenyan savanna, tropical and humid Indonesia and …boring old Germany. Each location brings its own charm and colors and they all look stunning to race in.

More importantly though, are the cars. You work your way from the classic era, first time rally racers like the BMW 2002 all the way through to the 90’s era cars like the Impreza. Although no real names are used, you know the look of each legend. The cars feel superb to drive and are more aligned to simulation style driving rather than arcade. The drifting feels right as you manage shifting the weight of your car through each corner and throttle when the wight lands on the drive wheels. Each turn you successfully drift through feels rewarding and satisfactory to make. It can be a little intimidating, especially considering the drop-down camera and not being able to really manage the view point. You do get used to it fairly quickly and become a natural in no time… or drop the difficulty.

All races are done in a tournament style timed stages with maintenance stops in between. No codriver is present – or really needed since the top-down camera enables you to see well ahead of every turn. Apart from the gorgeous visuals, the music sets the scene to every race. The soundtrack is synth heavy, a mixture of chillwave and electronica and sometimes ambient tunes. It fits perfectly with the relaxed feel of the game. I wouldn’t think twice about listening to it in my car, but I’m afraid I’d lose touch with reality and start drifting down the highway really fast.

There is a free drive mode, though not really as engaging, it does allow for some relaxed driving and shutter bugging (yes, there is a camera mode). I like this game. From its pretty scenery, soundtrack and tight gameplay, it doesn’t overstay its welcome or feel dull at any time. I would say it is a true contender in the rally racing genre. Its played best with a controller and takes around 18 hours to complete – though contradictory, it’s no race to finish it!

Art of Rally is a casual "rally game", where you can experience an alternative history of rally and drive cars from different eras in 7 countries.
Getting into the game is easy, control scheme is plain and simple and you can change the difficulty level and the damage rate to adjust the gameplay you looking for, most assists helps you to control the car. Other than that the game looks "casual", it's colorful and has simple shapes and effects, it's good to look at it. Soundtrack is fitting for the experience, I would say it's relaxing. Multiplayer is still somewhat active. It has some easter eggs which is car or rally related, people who are into this more can appreciate it for sure.
However for me Art of Rally has it's own set of difficulties, starting with the handling. Most assists helps you to keep the car on the tracks, but they make the handling weird and just makes no sense. Sometimes I have grip doing a slow corner, sometimes when I do the same I have no grip at all. A lot of times have to counter steer which is set too strong and that makes me lose control. In the other hand driving with no assist at all is somewhat better, but now the car either over steers or under steers at breaking, breaking without locking your wheels is impossible for me on controller. This is something which took a lot of frustration to get used to, but what I couldn't get used to is the respawn system, because if you just slide 10 meters from the track, you immediately get respawned and get a 5 seconds time penalty, even though I could have easily comeback on track. You have to also get used to the camera, which gives you a bird eye view of your car and surrounding and at first it's hard to determine corners and your speed, not even mentioning that foliage and buildings can block your view of the later part of the track, which makes it difficult to drive. Oh and yes, even though this is a so called rally game you have no co-driver for whatever reason, but that's the least of a problem to be fair.
AOR is not a bad game, but it depends on your preferences of racing games. If you interested in rally games and looking to get a casual, not so serious one, or just interested in time trial games, then you can give it a go with Art of Rally. To me, it's okay, but won't be my favorite. 25€ is expensive for this one, but for 7€ is a decent deal.

This review was written and posted just after completion of this game's carreer mode, which depending on how though you want your rally car and AI competition to be, can be beaten in 10 hours of less. I took my time on this game so I have full understanding of all it's components.

art of rally, is the casual rally racer with heavy emphasis on nostalgia and a love letter to this motorsports past.
While I shall list my critiques with the game below, none may take it away that is an amazing and well put together game, with great driving, a wonderful selection of Rally's most indomitable rally cars including many never-raced examples, an well crafted retro wave original soundtrack and among the most challenging rally courses I've ever driven.




Now I do have some gripes which I will list starting from here:

1) Rain/Snow. Imma start with something that I always thought was this game biggest weakness, the Rain/Snow stages. For those whom are curious, all the countries which host rallies have fixed stages the game picks at a random order at the start of the rally, with the weather and time of day also being randomized. And when the stage features the rain/snow, you are in for a rough time. To clarify, while the terrain driving model appears to be accurate to the terrain type (gravel/asphalt). The moment the rain/snow becomes a factor on the stage, its like actually driving on ice. Regardless of group (car class), model or drivetrain you happen to be driving. All of it feeling like driving on ice. It kinda pulled my out of the immersion on these stages as the AWD cars in later groups, ought to have at least some sort of grip in these very slippery conditions. It's not the trickiness of the rain/snow stages that is my complaint and these stages are rated separately on the leaderboards, but that every car just feels the exact same to drive in these. All of the unique car characteristics are completely removed and just feel tedious to get through rather than the challenge I believe was intended it to be.

2) Collisions with the environment: Funselektor have done in the overall a great job with differentiating the different countries, even having fitting and unique designed obstacles for them. My main issue remains that the interaction with any of these obstacles are a bit dodgy. Which is approx considering you shouldn't be hitting them in the first place. But the adage in rallying of "when in doubt, flat out!" rings quite often in art of rally and so you'll encounter them in nearly every stage. Some obstacles are just a bit of flair of destruction while driving straight through them at 80+ mp/h, while most others can stop a car dead in its tracks, spin you around, launch you to the moon and acts nothing like the object it is resembling. The inconsistency at times if difficult to swallow at times and has urged plenty of resetting of stages. Once in a blue moon can you utilize certain barries for a more softer landing. Oh and the armco's are instant terminal damage, just trade paint with one above 50 mph which makes it an easy achievement.

3) The soundtrack. While I have stated that the soundtrack for the game is some excellent Retro Wave is unfortunately not memorable. The music starts playing starting from the menu, and basically goes on no matter what happens. Whether you are in menu, rallying through Kenya, breaking speed-limits in Germany or sliding on ice in Norway, the music will play it's tracks in random order continuously. If the music was even remotely dynamic depending on what you are doing, it might have stuck around after. But for what it is, its good, yet fleeting.

4) No cue cards/limited camera options. Putting these to together as I am still on the "not so sure how I feel" category as this is something you have to make your own take on it. When I was playing the first few rallies in group 2, I was getting a bit annoyed that I had not cue card/call-outs. Only dismissing this thought initially as I was under the impression that the stages were randomized/procedurally generated, making accurate call-outs (anyone familiar with the DiRT Rally series can tell) neigh on impossible. A few hours later while closing in on the end with group 3, did I do a bit of free roaming, where I figured out that its all one big map. So the stages were set by the devs, and might have been possible to include cue cards. There is a mod for it for those whom desire it, but I never used it. Just having to navigate as a pure blooded driver and make split second decisions and getting them right, is among the greatest of joys I had in racing memory. That is, when you get it a bit wrong, sometimes making you miss a corner as the anticipated 5 left turned more into a sharp 3 mid way and you were going too fast to make it.

The camera you get is basically right between a top-down view and your standard 3rd person chase camera. While the height and angle are tweakable, the lack for a front bumper, bonnet or heaven forbid an actual cockpit view per car, would have made this one of the best rally games ever. Or even a more standard 3rd person camera view might have been nice. But this style of camera on it's own kinda solves the need for a co-driver, as 95 percent of stage is clearly visible (even through fog) from most angles. Its in the other 5 percent where different camera's or a co-driver with cue cards are needed. Usually in towns or blind corner through the forests.


I'll close with a few nitpicks: Some stages, particularly on inclined sharp corner, sort of clip through the ground making the course looks unfinished and reminding you are playing a video game. Early on I had a few stages making me do a forced restart, as my car while being recovered, getting placed in what was supposed to be an unaccessable part of the stage, making the game do an auto recovery, and placing me back at part of the track I'm not supposed to drive on, doing another auto recovery. This is a death cycle from which only restarting or retiring from the season is the only option. Although, once I entered group 4 it never happened again, so annoying, but thankfully never ever present..


So TL;DR:
Do I recommend this game? Yes!
Do I recommend it on a sale? Hell yes!!!
Do I recommend the Australia DLC? If you are really into some tight, fast gravel stages then sure. I have not played Australia but a buddy of mine did and he though it to be among his favourite stages.
Do I recommend the soundtrack? No unfortunately, if it was more dynamic I might have done so. But if you are into Retro wave, its a good purchase.

To say that this game is a sim would be incorrect. What it does, however, is boil down the rally driving experience to exactly what makes it, "it". The driving mechanics and physics FEEL real. As a person lucky enough to own a car that wouldn't be out of place in this game, and some fun places to drive it, this game captures the spirit of driving perfectly without any of the fat.